Warlock
by forthwrite
Summary: Harry is called in to Beacon Hills to help deal with a young wizard who's been possessed by a warlock.


a/n. Takes place season 3B for Teen Wolf, and around books 9-10 for Dresden Files. Also, I own nothing.

I was tired, really, _really_, tired. I had spent the last couple of nights dealing with some rogue pixies who decided it would be fun to try uprooting some ley lines. Yeah, I don't know either.

All I wanted to do was go back to sleep, but my phone was ringing again. I had been ignoring it for a good hour now, but whoever was calling seemed desperate to reach me. I decided to pick up and tell the person on the other end to leave me the hell alone.

'You better have a good reason for waking me up,' I growled into the receiver.

'Harry, it's two in the afternoon over in Chicago,' my friend Carlos Ramirez answered. 'I shouldn't get any flack for waking you up when you should've been awake for hours already.'

'I had to deal with some rogue pixies this week,' I muttered.

Carlos whistled. 'Never mind. I forgive you.'

'Anyway, man, what's up?' I asked. I figured something important had to be happening, or he wouldn't be so desperate to reach me.

He sighed. 'Yeah, about that. There's a bit of a,' he paused, 'situation here, and I think I'm going to need your help.'

'What's going on?'

'You're not going to like it,' he said.

I was not in the mood for this. 'Just tell me, Carlos. I just dealt with rogue pixies. I can deal with anything.'

'Fine. There's a warlock in Northern California, in a town called Beacon Hills.'

I suddenly felt cold.

'No,' I said firmly. 'I don't do warlocks anymore. I'm not going to help you kill a kid who made a couple of bad mistakes.'

'Harry, just listen,' Carlos pleaded. 'You know what a nogitsune is?'

'Some sort of Japanese fox demon, or something,' I said. 'I'm not really sure. I've never encountered one.'

'It's a dark spirit that feeds on chaos and pain.'

I shrugged, even though I knew Carlos couldn't see me. 'That's nice. What does this have to do with me or this warlock of yours again?'

'This kid, this warlock, is apparently pretty powerful, although he hasn't been formerly trained in magic. A nogitsune possessed him, and he's now killed three people in the last two days.'

I shivered. 'Are you going to execute him?'

I heard him sigh through the receiver. 'If it was up to me, I wouldn't kill him. He doesn't deserve to die because a nogitsune possessed him and used his magic to kill people.'

'So what's the problem?' I asked.

'I can't go in to deal with this. I'm still pretty banged up from that tiff we had with the Reds last month. I just don't have the strength, physical or magical, to deal with a warlock right now.'

'Shit, Carlos, I'm sorry,' I said. 'I didn't realize you were hurt that bad.'

'It's not your fault,' he said. 'But I'm calling in a favor. I want you to go deal with the kid.'

'Why me?' I asked.

Carlos was silent for a long moment. 'The kid, he's in a bad place now, and most Wardens would blast him first and ask questions later. Even if they did decide to do things the hard way and managed to get rid of the nogitsune, they'd haul his ass in to the Council to try him for being a warlock.'

'I know,' I said glumly.

'Look, I don't know what happened to you, why you hate the Wardens and the Council so much, but I know that you'll try to help him. You'll do anything you can to stop innocents from getting killed, but you'll also do your damn best to make sure the kid survives this.' I heard him take a deep breath. 'And I know that you won't bring him in for execution if you exorcise the nogitsune.'

He was right. This kid was in trouble, through no fault of his own, and I couldn't bear to see some cruel Neanderthal of a Warden execute him on a charge of black magic.

'Fine,' I said. 'I'll do it. I'm going to need some time to get some stuff together and figure out the best way to use the Ways to get to Northern California.'

I heard Carlos breathe a sigh of relief. 'Thanks, man. You have no idea what this means to me.'

He gave me some directions to Beacon Hill's animal clinic. Apparently the local wizard fronted as a vet.

After I got all of my supplies together, I drove to the Carpenter house. Molly, my apprentice, was sitting on the front porch keeping an eye on some of her many younger siblings playing tag in the front yard.

'Hey, grasshopper,' I said as I got out of my car.

'Hey, boss,' she replied. 'Was I supposed to be at your house today? I'm pretty sure we didn't have a tutoring session scheduled into tomorrow.'

'You're right,' I said, 'but I have to go out of town for a few days, so I'm coming by to let you know that training's on hold until I come back.'

'Where you going?' she asked.

'To a town in Northern California. They're having a nogitsune-warlock problem, and they need my help.'

'Can I come?' she asked, biting her lip. 'I can help. You know I can. You've said I've improved tons since you started training me.'

I sighed. 'Molly, we've talked about this,' I said, sitting myself beside her on the porch. 'You have improved, a lot, but I don't think you're ready for the big leagues yet. You need to learn a lot more before I take you to help me with a warlock.'

'But I've gotten a lot better,' she whispered, wringing her hands in her lap.

'I know, grasshopper. But I don't want you getting hurt. Hunting down a warlock is a lot scarier and a lot more dangerous than the things we've been practicing in my lab. Do you understand?'

She nodded, her eyes wet and red. I looked away.

I felt guilty, really guilty. I knew how desperate she was to prove herself, to prove that she could be a good wizard even though she started out her magical career just past the narrow line that delineated light and dark magic. But I couldn't take her into danger, not yet, not when she barely could create a circle of will, not when she got overwhelmed during the most basic magical exercises. If things went to shit, as things around me often did, she would have no way of protecting herself. I was her mentor, and I couldn't fail her like Justin failed me.

'Sorry, grasshopper,' I said again, before leaving.

I got to the animal clinic later that night. I knocked on the door, and a big, balding man opened it, despite the late hour.

'You must be Dresden,' he said. 'Come on in. Carlos said you'd be coming.'

I walked in, pushing through his very well-fortified threshold. He was strong, I could tell. His wards were exceptionally well-crafted, and all of them required on insane amount of magical power to run.

'You must be Deaton,' I said, sitting down on one of the chairs in the waiting area.

Deaton nodded. 'I'm a wizard of the White Council.'

'I never see you at meetings,' I said.

He shrugged. 'I rarely go. I'm not so fond of some of their more – antiquated policies.'

'I get that,' I said. 'I'm not the White Council's biggest fan either.'

'I know,' he said.

I started. 'Really?'

'You're beginning to make a name for yourself, Mr. Dresden,' he said. 'Many more – modern wizards do not approve of many of the White Council's policies. Most of these wizards consider you to be their role model.'

'Seriously?' I asked. 'People think _I'm _a role model? I almost got killed as a warlock when I was sixteen.'

'You were a teenager who killed his mentor after he tried to turn you into a thrall. Many wizards believe executing you for your actions would have been a major breach of justice.'

I was getting a bit uncomfortable, talking about my past, finding out that it was apparently common knowledge, hearing that apparently other wizards admired me for my quiet rebellion against the Council.

'Can we change the subject now?' I asked.

He nodded. 'I'm the only wizard in the area, and I end up dealing with most of the supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills. For many years, a werewolf pack, the Hales, lived here. They kept things nice and quiet and didn't scare the mortals, until a crazy hunter burnt their house down.'

'Ouch,' I said. 'What did they do?' This could be bad. Hunters and werewolves never really get along, and their grudges were legendary. I could easily see an angry werewolf pack deciding to enter a Montague-Capulet style blood feud with a rival group of hunters.

Deaton's face hardened. 'They didn't. Most of them were burned alive.'

I winced. 'That's, uh, not very good. How many survived?'

'Three. Two of the kids were in school. After the fire, they moved to New York. Peter Hale survived, but was very, very badly burned. He was in a coma in the hospital until about a year ago. When he woke up, he was not fully sane, and killed Laura Hale, the surviving Alpha, in order to get her power. He then went on a rampage of revenge, and killed anyone he felt was involved in the fire.'

'How'd you stop him?' I asked.

He shook his head. 'I didn't. Peter turned Scott McCall, my teenage assistant, into a werewolf.'

Aaaand it was getting worse. 'So a bitten teenager became the Alpha after killing the werewolf who turned him?'

'No. His best friend, Stiles, creatively used a Molotov cocktail to burn Peter alive, with the help of Derek Hale, the only surviving member of the Hale family.'

Okay, this was getting kind of confusing. 'So who's the Alpha now?'

'Derek was for a while,' Deaton said, 'and even had his own pack. Recently, however, he's decided to give over his power to Scott.'

'And everything's been calm since then?'

Deaton shook his head. 'All that happened months ago. Since then, we've had multiple strings of serial killings, caused by a kanima, Alpha pack, and Darach respectively. Derek and Scott's werewolves, with the help of myself, Stiles, and a few others, managed to stop all of them.'

'Wow,' I said. 'Sounds like Beacon Hills is the new Hellmouth.'

Deaton's lips quirked into a smile. 'Sure seems like it,' he agreed. 'We had a Nemeton here, and it called all of these violent supernatural creatures to the town. We managed to shut it down a few months ago. After that, everything was calm until a few weeks ago.'

'What happened?' I asked.

'Stiles began acting strangely. He's our nascent wizard and nogitsune host.'

'He's the kid who burned the Alpha alive with a Molotov cocktail?' I asked.

'Yes,' Deaton said. 'That was before we realized he had magic. I realized a couple of months after that, when he created a potent magic circle with his will. However, I have not yet trained him.'

'Why haven't you?' I asked.

Deaton gave me a look. 'Even though he's human, Stiles is one of the most important people in the pack,' he said drily. 'This town was a literal magnet for supernatural killers, and Derek and Scott, while well-meaning, do not exactly have the brains to keep themselves or the pack from getting killed. Stiles' quick-thinking has saved them and the town more than once. He hasn't exactly had time to learn the subtleties of thautamurgy.

I raised my hands in surrender. 'I get it. So what happened?'

'It seems a nogitsune was drawn to his power, and decided it would be fun to possess him.'

'How do you know he's possessed?' I asked.

Deaton sighed. 'Stiles was behaving - strangely, for a while. He couldn't sleep, eat, or concentrate.'

'That's not that unusual for a stressed kid with ADHD,' I pointed out.

'He's also been sleepwalking, losing time, and hallucinating.'

'Okay, that's a bit more unusual,' I conceded.

'One night late last week, Stiles called Scott in a panic, saying he was in a basement somewhere with a bear trap on his leg, and that he didn't know where he was, or how he got there. We found him hours later in front of the Nemeton, unconscious, hypothermic, and in shock.'

'And I'm guessing there _wasn't_ a steel trap clamped to his leg, right?' I asked, just to make sure.

Deaton shook his head. 'His leg was uninjured. He hallucinated the entire incident in the basement. We took him to the hospital, and during a power outage that we now suspect he orchestrated, he disappeared, but not before he stabbed Scott in the stomach with a katana and informed him that he was a nogitsune who would be having lots of fun arranging people's deaths.'

'And he hasn't been seen since?' I asked.

'Nope, but Lydia, our resident banshee, has found three bodies since Monday on school grounds, and is certain that he is responsible for the deaths.'

'And I'm assuming you've tried tracking spells?' I asked Deaton.

He nodded his head. 'More than once. They didn't work.'

'What do you mean, they didn't work? Tracking spells always work, unless . . . ' I trailed off, a sinking feeling curling deep down in my gut.

'Unless the subject is in the Nevernever,' Deaton finished.

'Shit,' I said.

'Pretty much,' he agreed.

'The nogitsune is capable of opening portals to the Nevernever,' I said. 'That means it has access to Stiles' power, and I'm sure it knows how to use it. How powerful did you say Stiles was?'

'I don't know,' Deaton admitted. 'I never had an opportunity to test him. If I had to guess, he's stronger than average, but I cannot say for certain.'

'So we basically have a homicidal, sociopathic nogitsune running around with access to an untrained wizard's power.'

'Yup,' Deaton said.

'And we have no way of finding him.'

'Yup,' he repeated.

'I think it's time to talk to his pack,' I said.

About an hour later, a whole slew of people were crowded into Deaton's back office. I counted two teenage boys, three teenage girls, a mid-twenties something guy, and three older men.

'Listen up folks,' I hollered. The room quieted as everyone turned to look at me. 'My name's Harry Dresden. Deaton called me in to help you find your missing boy wonder. I want everyone to go around and introduce themselves.'

A tanned boy with a crooked jawline stepped forward. 'I'm Scott, Stiles' best friend and the Alpha of this pack,' he said, gesturing around with one of his hands.

The introductions went like that, each person stepping forward, giving their name, their relationship to Stiles, and their position in the pack.

A few minutes later, I knew that Isaac and Derek were also werewolves. Lydia was a banshee, Kira a kitsune, and Allison a hunter, as was her dad, Chris. Stiles' dad was there too, and was the Sheriff of Beacon Hills. Pretty strange werewolf pack, if you ask me.

The last guy introduced himself as Peter Hale, beta werewolf.

'Wait a minute. You're Peter Hale?' I asked him. 'The crazy Alpha that went on a killing spree? The one that was burnt alive by Stiles?'

He nodded.

'So why exactly are you walking around, talking to me, and not, you know, _dead?' _I demanded.

'There are certain spells that allow one to transcend the plane of death,' Peter said airily, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that he wastalking to a known Warden who had the power to execute him for all sorts of magical infractions.

'You used a spell to _come back to life?' _I repeated. 'You know that's against the laws of magic, right?'

'You broke that law too,' Peter drawled.

'I didn't resurrect a human,' I said. 'I animated a _dinosaur_.'

Behind Peter, I saw Isaac's eyes go wide, and I distinctly someone whisper, 'That's so cool!'

'A werewolf isn't human either,' Peter said, his tone smug.

Before I could respond, Deaton cut in. 'We'll discuss the legality of various forms of resurrection later,' he said. 'Right now we need to figure out how we're going to exorcise the nigitsune from Stiles.'

'Wait a minute,' Lydia said. 'You now know who we are, but we don't know who you are. How do we know we can trust you, that you're going to help us?

'I'm a wizard, based in Chicago,' I said. 'Carlos Ramirez, your Warden, heard about your problem, but is - unavailable. I owe him a few favors, so he asked me to come help you guys.'

'What happened to Carlos?' the Scott asked.

I tensed up. 'He got – hurt,' I said eventually. 'In the war with the vampires. He's going to be out of commission for a while.'

'That's too bad,' the sheriff murmured. 'I hate seeing kids getting hurt.'

'Yeah, me too,' I said softly. 'That's why I'm here.'

'You're a Warden also?' Lydia asked.

I nodded.

'Are you going to treat Stiles like a warlock?' she demanded. 'I know that the nogitsune forced him to use dark magic. Are you going to execute him for that?'

I shook my head quickly. 'No! I want to help the kid, dammit, not kill him for getting possessed. I'm going to do my best to give Stiles his body back. I want to exorcise the nogitsune from him, and give him his life back.'

'What if you can't?' Scott whispered. 'What if you _can't_ get rid of the nogitsune?'

'If I can't?' I repeated. That's exactly what I was afraid of. I needed to stop the nogitsune, needed to prevent it from killing innocents, but I didn't want to hurt Stiles in the process. I was going to try for some sort of exorcism, but if that didn't work, my last resort would be to kill its host – Stiles' body. I really, _really_, didn't want to do that to kid that had the misfortune of getting possessed.

'Kid,' I said firmly, with a confidence I didn't feel, 'the word 'can't' is not in my vocabulary. I'm Harry Dresden, and I can do anything.'

Derek scowled, and said, 'You know we're werewolves, right? We can hear your heartbeat, and know that you're scared.'

Fucking werewolves, with their supernatural senses.

'You're right,' I said finally. 'But I'm going to try.'

End chapter

From what I understand, the nogitsune is using his body to kill people, hurt his friends. When all of this is over, when he realizes the harm that his body was forced to cause, he's going to be in a bad place. I need to make sure that he'll have a support system to help him recover from that.'

The tanned kid stepped forward. 'We're going to do everything we can to help Stiles.

'Is Stiles his true Name?' I asked.

Everyone turned to look at the Sheriff, who winced. 'No. He was named after his maternal grandmother.'

'Can you tell it to me?'

He winced. 'I can try.'

I gave him a look. 'You can't pronounce your own kid's name?'

'Hey,' he said. 'I don't speak Polish. I can give you the Anglicized version, if you like.'

I shook my head. 'For me to be able to invoke his Name, I have to know the correct pronunciation.'

'Sorry,' the Sheriff said. 'The only one who could pronounce it besides for Stiles was his mother, and she's been dead these last - eight years.' He whispered the last few words, a broken man who had lost his wife and was now convinced that he was about to lose his teenage son. I felt kinda bad for him.

'It's alright,' I reassured him. 'I wouldn't have necessarily been able to use his name to find him in the Nevernever, but I figured it was worth a shot.'

'But why is he using the Nevernever to get around?' I asked.

Scott gave me a look, like he couldn't believe someone as stupid as me managed to survive till my age. 'Because if he stayed in town, we'd be able to track him,' he said, tapping his nose.

Right, werewolves. Forgot about that.

'So the one good thing about the tracking spell is that it takes us to the last place Stiles' body was before the nogitsune took it into the Nevernever,' I said.

Scott's face scrunched up. 'And that's a good thing because?'

I rolled my eyes. 'Magic isn't really your forte, is it?'

Scott shrugged. 'That was always Stiles' department.'

I hoped the kid didn't notice that he was using pass tense.


End file.
